Pradeep Balmuchu of the Congress and Sanjiv Kumar of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Thursday won the two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand in a re-election process. S.S. Ahluwalia of the Bharatiya Janata Party lost, securing 20 votes.
In the 81-member Assembly, only 68 voted. The process started at 9 a.m. on the Assembly premises. The 11 MLAs of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik did not vote, unhappy as the party was with the Congress candidate. CPI (ML) legislator Vinod Kumar Singh also stayed away. One seat, Hatia, is lying vacant.
The Congress candidate got 25 votes — 13 of the Congress, five of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and seven of others. Mr. Sanjiv Kumar secured 23 votes: five of the ruling alliance partner, the All Jharkhand Students Union and 18 of the JMM.
The re-election was necessitated after allegation of horse-trading forced the countermanding of the March 31 elections. A sum of Rs. 2.15 crore was seized from a car by the CBI.
